Shirring machine

ABSTRACT

Machines for forming panels of decorative material, including means for gathering the material along a plurality of parallel spaced-apart rows; means for applying a backing to the gathered material; means for adhering the decorative material to said backing along said rows.

[111 3,804,688 y[45'] Apr. 16, 1974 United States Patent [191 Hillenbrand et al.

5/1960 Kuhn 8/1921 Odle et al 1 [54] SHIRRING MACHINE l/l923 Maier...... l/l951 [75] Inventors: George C. Hillenbrand; Carl A.

Wettering, both of Batesville, Ind.

[73] Assignee: Batesville Casket Company, Inc.,

6/1951 Hoseld..

Batesville, Ind.

Dec. 30, 19791 [2l] Appl. No.: 213,871

6/1968 Painter et al. l/1950 Hepner............. 10/1970 Grifths................

[22] Filed:

10/1972 Von Der Heide said rows.

2 674,299 4/1954 156/473 3,635,178 l/1972 Levinstein et al. 112/132 7 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures PATENEmPR 16 |914 SHEET ls UF 6 PATENTEDAPRISIQM 1804588 sum s of e l i ....V

SHIRRING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Burial caskets' consist of a shell, usually metal, in which a body supporting mattress is positioned and lining members extend upwardly from said mattress, to render the interior of pleasing appearance. Heretofore, the liners have been hand-made in the sewing room of the factory. This procedure causes the cost per liner to be higher than desired. Also, since the hand-work on the liners is a somewhat boring work, it is becoming in creasingly difficult to secure women to staff the sewing room.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for producing decorative panels of shirred material. The invention increases the number of designs of liners available for use in lining caskets. The invention is directed to a shirring machine having mating shirring rolls mounted in a shirring cage which can be easily removed from the machine to permit adding another shirring cage in which the mating shirring rolls form a different pattern. Through this arrangement a number of different designs can be obtained readily.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 7 is an elevational view, partly in cross-section, showing the details of the shirring rolls;

FIG. 8 is an elevational view, partly in cross-section, showing the relationship of the fabric to the shirring rolls;

FIG. 9 is a plan viewof a spreader roll;

FIG. l0 is a plan view of a panel of decorative material; and

FIG. l1 is a cross-sectional view of the decorativ material taken along the line ll-ll of FIG. l2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The shirring machine l0 is the heart of the present invention. The other machines illustrated in association with the machine 10 are conventional in design and form no part of the present invention, other than through association with the shirring machine 10.

In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. l, the shirring machine shown generally at l0 is associated with a sewing machine 1l through a cooling table l2. The output of the shirring machine is fed into the sewing machine by a conveyor I3 which extends through the sewing machine and terminates adjacent electrically driven slitters 14. Pull rolls pull the material off of the conveyor 13 and feed it into a cutoff shear 16. A measuring roll 17 controls the cutoff shear.

Decorative material such as silk or the like to bc formed into decorative panels is provided in the form of a continuous supply 22. Similarly, a continuous supply 26 of backing material is also provided in any suitable manner.

The shirring machine includes a bolted framework 20 which supports a second frame 23. The frame 23 is the shirring machine cage.

The bolted frame 20 contains a power unit 27 which consists of an electric motor, a variable speed unit and a speed reducing unit. The conveyor 13 is journaled in the frame 20 as well as in the frame of sewing machine 1l and is driven by power unit 27. A separate electric motor 28 drives the sewing machine l1 and the pull rolls l5. The power unit 27 regulates the speed of sewing machine motor 28.

The shirring machine cage 23 consists of two end plates 30 spaced apart and held together by a pair of the spacers 31. A pair of cross rods 38 extend between the plates 30. These rods are fixed to the plates in spaced-apart parallel relation.

Plates 30 each contain an upwardly opening slot 34 (FIG. 5) along the vertical edges of which guide bars 35 are fixed by suitable bolts. Each plate 30 contains a laterally opening slot 36 in which a presser roll is mounted, as will presently appear. Each plate 30 also contains a circular opening 37 (FIG. 3). A crank operates a worm drive to move the block up and down to control the meshing of teeth on forming rolls.

Fitted against each plate 30 is a ball bearing 40 (FIG. 3), the outer race of which has a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of opening 37. A clamp 4l, held by suitable bolts, engages the free face of the outer race and secures the outer race to the plate 30.

The lower forming roll is mounted upon a hollow shaft S0, into the ends of which an extension end plug 5l is fitted and secured by capscrews. The inner race 53 of the bearing 40 is secured to a shaft extension S4 forming part of the extension plug 5l. The shaft 50 is thus mounted in the frame 23. Shaft extension S4 extends beyond the bearing 40 and a driven sprocket wheel 56 around which the driving roller chain 104 is threaded as will presently appear.

Also mounted upon plate -30 is a bracket 57 which extends outwardly from the plate 30 and then upwardly beyond the end of shaft 54. The upper end of the vertical portion of the bracket 57 supports a heater 58 which extends through the hollow centers of shaft 50 and shaft extension 54 and beyond both ends of those shafts. In one instance, the heater 58 is a quartz tube encompassing a 3,000 watt heating element. Alternatively two or more heaters could be used, for example, low wattage heaters could be provided which operate continuously with high wattage heaters provided for additional capacity when required.

An upper roller bearing block 60 contains slots into which guide bars 35 fit to support the upper roll in the cage 23. The upper shaft 6l includes an extension 64 secured to the hollow shaft 6l'. The shaft extension 64 is journaled in the block 60 by a ball bearing 59, similar to the bearing arrangement 40. A bracket secured to the block 60 has an upwardly extending portion which supports a heater 66 similar to the heater 58.

Connected to the upper ends of block 60 is a screw threaded bar 7l. A crank wheel 72, FIG. 5, is connected to a threading unit 73 on the front side of the machine and a cross shaft 74. Operation of the crank wheel 72 raises and lowers the bearing blocks 60 and the upper roll assembly journaled therein.

The shirring rolls comprise a plurality of spacedapart spur gears that are meshed together with the ribbon of silk 22 disposed therebetween. These include bottom gears 80 secured upon the lower hollow shaft 50. Spacing rings 83, FIG. 7, are abutted against the gears 80 to space the gears in desired position axially of the shaft.

The upper roll includes spaced-apart gears 85 rotatably supported upon the upper shaft 61 and spaced longitudinally of the shaft by spacer rings 87. These gears are driven by gears 80 through the decorative material 22.

The shaft 61 is journaled in a journal block 60 which is movable vertically by a crank wheel 72 and worm drive, the side plates are equipped with a stop bar 75 that is engaged by a pin 76 on the block 60 to limit the downward movement of the block.

Guides 95 are disposed alongside of an upper gear 85 and spaced therefrom by plastic buttons 96, FIG. 7. Preferably, buttons 96 are composed of nylon. These guides are supported upon the cross rods 38 by lineal bearings 94.

The bearings 94 include a sleeve 97 connected to the guides 95 through bars 99. Each sleeve contains a plurality of balls 93 which are in rolling contact with the cross rods 38 and allow the bearings to slide axially of the rods.

Considerable heat is generated during operation of the machine which causes expansion of various of the machine components.

The bearings 94 allow the guides 95 to move into proper relationship with the gathering gears 83 and 85 as this expansion occurs.

The bottom edge of guides 95 are tapered and shaped to force the ribbon of silk 22 into the bottoms of the teeth on roll 80, as will be best seen in FIG. 7. This insures that the meshing of the teeth on gears 80 with the teeth on the gears 85 will gather the silk in bands of gathers of desired configuration.

The power unit 27 contains an electric motor 100, the shaft of which extends into a variable speed unit 101. The output of the unit 101 extends into a speed reducing unit 102, the output of which contains a sprocket wheel 103 around which the gear drive chain 104 extends in driving engagement with sprocket 56. The drive arrangement delivers power to the lower shirring gears 80, thereby to drive both rolls 80 and 85. The chain 104 engages an idler roll 105 which is adjustable to maintain a desired degree of tightness on the chain.

Conveyor chain 13 encircles a sprocket wheel 106 which is rotated by a drive chain 107 that is connected to a drive sprocket on the output shaft of the power unit. From the sprocket wheel 106 the conveyor chain 13 extends around grooved wheels 108, located near the lower shirring rolls or gears 80. The conveyor chain then extends across a cooling deck l2, FIG. l, to a grooved pulley 108 in the sewing machine 11. The chain 13 extends downwardly from 108 to a pulley 109 and thence horizontally to the sprocket wheel 106. Pulley 108 is adjustable to set chain tension. Three such chains engaging sprocket wheels 106 and grooved pulleys 108 are provided. However, the number may vary without departing from the invention.

Each conveyor chain 13 consists of blocks 112 spaced apart and connected together by a pair of links` 111 pivotally connected to the ends of the blocks. Each block 112 may carry an outwardly extending pin 113 extending generally perpendicularly of the blocks.

In the illustrated embodiment a sewing machine 11 is shown associated with the shirring machine l0. The sewing machine is available on the open market, tailored to meet particular conditions encountered. Sufficient to note here that the framework 120 of the machine has conveyor pulleys 108 and 109 journaled in its lower portion and a measuring wheel 17 is mounted upon a bracket projecting from the upper portion of the framework.

A cross tube 121 fixed in the sewing machine framework supports a plurality of electrically driven slitters 14.

journaled in the framework is a pair of pull rolls l5 which pull the web from the conveyor 13, which terminates near the slitters, and feeds the web into the cutoff shear 16. The cutoff shear 16 is a standard item available on the open market. Sufficient to note here that the shear shown is motor driven through a single revolution clutch that is controlled by the measuring roll 17. The slitters cut the web into strips of desired width and the cutoff shear cuts the strips into desired lengths. Alternatively, a circular knife cutter that travels the width of the web could be used.

To prepare the illustrated machine for operation, the upper roll 85 is raised by an operation of the crank wheel 72. The ribbon of silk 22 is threaded through the wrinkle rolls 114, FIG. 5, thence over a wormed roll 115, under a guide roll 116 to the lower forming roll 80 and around that roll to the conveyor 13.

The wormed roll 115 consists of a cylindrical shaft 117 to which is attached a worm member 118 which engages the silk 22 at its center and spreads it outwardly therefrom in both directions. Alternatively, a bowed expander roll could be used to perform this function.

The upper forming roll 85 is then lowered to mesh the teeth of roll 80, squeezing the silk therebetween. The motor is then started and roll thereby turned counterclockwise and the upper roll being driven by the roll 80 is rotated clockwise. The meshing of gear rolls 80 and 85 occurs on a vertical center line through the rolls.

The ribbon of backing material 26 extends over a combining roll 122 that is journaled in a journal block 127 movable laterally through an operation of crank 128. The roll 122 is moved into engagement with the silk in the teeth of roll 80 on the horizontal center line of that roll.

The combining roll 122 consists of a hollow cylinder member 123 in both ends of which end plates 124 are inserted and secured by capscrews 125. A shaft 126 extends through the end plates and is journaled in blocks 127 which are mounted in the horizontal opening 36 in the end plates 30. A handwheel 128 operates to move the block 127 so as to move combining roll 122 into engagement with the shirred silk under a desired pressure.

The material 26 is preferably a loosely felted cellulose material. Preferably, a thermoplastic material 129, such as nylon is pressed into the cellulose. The heat of roll 80 melts the thermoplastic material causing it to adhere to the bands of shirrings to form a web 130. A variant pattern is provided by utilizing only the bond between the thermoplastic material andthe silk to retain the silk upon the backing. The sewing machine is eliminated and no stitches are provided along the gathered rows. Soft roll 131, rotated by its engagement with the web 130, insures that the web will be moved by the conveyor 13 across the cooling table l2 into and through the sewing machine l1.

The details of the soft roll 131 consist of a thin wall tubing 134 having end pieces 135 which telescope into the ends of the tubing and are fixed by set screws 136 upon a shaft 132 that is journaled in a bracket 133, FIG. 5. Fixed upon the outer surface of the tubing 134 by an adhesive is a foamed material 137 which may be polyurethane foam or its equivalent. Preferably, the material is about one-half inch in thickness.

In FIG. there is shown a sample of casket liner 140. The sample contains three rows of gatherings 141, each of which contains three rows of stitchings 142. It will be noted that the left-hand of gatherings if farther from the center row than is the right-hand row of gatherings. The silk 143 between the rows of gatherings is fluffed up as shown. In one instance, the teeth of the forming rolls 80 and 85 are approximately one-eighth of an inch deep. The silk 22 is `formed inwardly ofthe rolls and the teeth on the rolls are spaced so as to form four gatherings per inch. Through this arrangement, the silk 22 is shortened approximately one-half inch by each gathering` This results in approximately 2 inches of ungathered silk 143 per inch of gathering. This has been found to be sufficient to produce a pleasing appearance in the casket liners.

At the left-hand end of FIG. 11, the ungathered silk 143 is shown. In the center of the figure, the gatherings are shown without the rows of stitches 142 and at the right endof the figure the stitches are shown.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that casket liners made by the described machine are of pleasing appearance. Since the shirring and combining rolls are mounted in a shirring cage, it is only necessary to disconnect the drive chain and the electrical connections to ready the cage for removal from the floor frame. A different cage having a different arrangement of the forming rolls can then be secured on the floor frame.

As will be seen best in FIG. 3, the terminals 150 of the heaters 58 and 66 project beyond the ends of the quartz envelope of the heater. A suitable plug 151 engages the terminals and power is thus connected to the heater elements.

From the foregoing it is apparent that the heart of the invention is contained in the shirring cage 23. The design of the casket can be varied by varying the spacing v of the forming rolls and also by varying the shape and spacing of the teeth on the rolls. Since the cage and its contents can be removed from the frame of the machine in convenient manner and another cage installed thereon, the desired number of patterns of liners can be achieved readily.

Having thus shown and described our invention, what we consider new and desirable to have protected by letters patent is pointed out in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A method for shirring fabric in parallel, spaced apart rows comprising the steps of:

1. passing fabric through rotating gear elements carried on two parallel supports for meshing engagement so as to gather said material in rows;

2. holding said fabric entrained in the teeth of the gear elements of one support for a portion of rotational movement thereof;

3. passing said entrained fabric and a backing material between said gear elements on said one support and a pressure roll; and

4. conveying said backing material and said fabric on pins of a conveyer through a sewing unit.

2. A method for shirring fabric in parallel spaced apart rows comprising the steps of:

l. passing fabric through rotating meshing gear elements which are spaced apart on parallel supports for simultaneously gathering and heating said fabric;

2. holding said fabric entrained in the teeth of the gear elements of one support for a portion of rotational movement of said gear elements; and

3. subsequently passing said entrained fabric and a thermoplastic impregnated backing material between said gear elements of one support and a combining pressure roll for melting said thermoplastic and adhcsively securing said backing material to said fabric.

3. A method as recited in claim 2 including the steps of:

1. holding said fabric in gathered relation to said backing material by a conveyer having pins therein for piercing said fabric and material; and

2. conveying the fabric and backing material to a sewing unit for sewing said backing and fabric together.

4. An apparatus for shirring fabric in a row comprising:

a. a support b. two elongated members journaled in said support,

each carrying a gear element in meshing engagement with a gear element of the other member for gathering fabric in a row;

c. a pressure roll engaging the gear element of one member for pressing a backing material against the gathered fabric; and

d. guide means associated with the gear element of one of said elongated members and extending toward the gear element of said other elongated member and having bottom edges shaped to force the fabric into the teeth of the gear of the gear element of said other elongated member, said guide means extending from the meshing engagement of said gear elements to a position adjacent the pressure roll engagement with the gear elements for maintaining the fabric entrained within the teeth of said gear elements for the application of the backing material against the gathered fabric.

5. An apparatus as recited in claim 4 in which said elongated members carry heating elements for heating a thermoplastic impregnated backing material to render it tacky to secure same to the shirred fabric.

6. An apparatus as recited in claim 4 in which the elongated members carry a plurality of spaced apart meshing gear elements and a pair of guide means associated with each pair of spaced apart gear elements.

7. An apparatus as recited in claim 6 wherein said guide elements are mounted for limited movement axially of said elongated members.

Il ik #t lll 

1. A method for shirring fabric in parallel, spaced apart rows comprising the steps of:
 1. passing fabric through rotating gear elements carried on two parallel supports for meshing engagement so as to gather said material in rows;
 2. holding said fabric entrained in the teeth of the gear elements of one support for a portion of rotational movement thereof;
 3. passing said entrained fabric and a backing material between said gear elements on said one support and a pressure roll; and
 4. conveying said backing material and said fabric on pins of a conveyer through a sewing unit.
 2. holding said fabric entrained in the teeth of the gear elements of one support for a portion of rotational movement thereof;
 2. A method for shirring fabric in parallel spaced apart rows comprising the steps of:
 2. holding said fabric entrained in the teeth of the gear elements of one support for a portion of rotational movement of said gear elements; and
 2. conveying the fabric and backing material to a sewing unit for sewing said backing and fabric together.
 3. subsequently passing said entrained fabric and a thermoplastic impregnated backing material between said gear elements of one support and a combining pressure roll for melting said thermoplastic and adhesively securing said backing material to said fabric.
 3. A method as recited in claim 2 including the steps of:
 3. passing said entrained fabric and a backing material between said gear elements on said one support and a pressure roll; and
 4. conveying said backing material and said fabric on pins of a conveyer through a sewing unit.
 4. An apparatus for shirring fabric in a row comprising: a. a support b. two elongated members journaled in said support, each carrying a gear element in meshing engagement with a gear element of the other member for gathering fabric in a row; c. a pressure roll engaging the gear element of one member for pressing a backing material against the gathered fabric; and d. guide means associated with the gear element of one of said elongated members and extending toward the gear element of said other elongated member and having bottom edges shaped to force the fabric into the teeth of the gear of the gear element of said other elongated member, said guide means extending from the meshing engagement of said gear elements to a position adjacent the pressure roll engagement with the gear elements for maintaining the fabric entrained within the teeth of said gear elements for the appliCation of the backing material against the gathered fabric.
 5. An apparatus as recited in claim 4 in which said elongated members carry heating elements for heating a thermoplastic impregnated backing material to render it tacky to secure same to the shirred fabric.
 6. An apparatus as recited in claim 4 in which the elongated members carry a plurality of spaced apart meshing gear elements and a pair of guide means associated with each pair of spaced apart gear elements.
 7. An apparatus as recited in claim 6 wherein said guide elements are mounted for limited movement axially of said elongated members. 